Horizon Lines, the largest U.S. domestic ocean carrier, will launch a weekly trans-Pacific service from China to the West Coast in December after the expiration of a space-charter agreement with Maersk Line.
The new service will use five 2,824-TEU, 23-knot ships that now call at Guam in Horizon’s domestic service and continue on to China. Maersk now charters space on the vessels from Guam to China and from Chinese ports to the United States.
After the carriers' current space charter expires Dec. 10, Horizon will market its services in China directly to customers instead of acting as a wholesaler of vessel space to Maersk. Because the ships are already in the trans-Pacific, the change won't increase overall capacity in the trade.
Matson Navigation, Horizon's chief competitor in the Hawaii-Guam trade, sends its ships from Guam to China and back to the United States under a similar arrangement.
Horizon expects its international service to generate about 10 percent of the company's annual revenue, which was about $1.3 billion last year. In addition to Hawaii and Guam, the company operates in the Puerto Rico and Alaska trade lanes.
Horizon said it hasn't decided on Chinese ports or vessel rotations but expects to offer direct transits to the West Coast of about 11 days from China's central coast or 12 days from South China.
The Journal of Commerce Online
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